Murder inquiry after police drag man behind van

Sibongile Khumalo

DAVEYTON: South Africa has opened a murder investigation into the death of a Mozambican taxi driver who was filmed being dragged by a police van through the streets, in a case that has sparked widespread outrage.

Video footage taken by a bystander shows 27-year-old Mido Macia tussling with half a dozen police officers before being handcuffed to the back of a police van and dragged to a police station in Daveyton, about 40 kilometres east of Johannesburg, on Tuesday.

A large crowd of bystanders looked on, some warning the uniformed officers they were being filmed.

South Africa's police watchdog is investigating the death in custody of a Mozambican taxi driver who was filmed being dragged behind a police vehicle. Photo: AFP

''Hey! Hey! Why are you hitting him?'' one person in the crowd can be heard shouting in Zulu.

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''It was him who started it,'' a police officer replied.

Kicking and struggling to avoid the tarmac, Macia was taken into custody at Daveyton police station and was found dead less than two hours and 25 minutes later, according to investigators.

An autopsy found death was caused by head injuries and internal bleeding.

The South African President, Jacob Zuma, condemned the killing as ''horrific, disturbing and unacceptable''. ''No human being should be treated in that manner,'' he said.

South Africa's police commissioner, Riah Phiyega, said eight officers had been suspended and the station commander had been removed from his post.

The police watchdog and witnesses said two officers initially confronted Macia for parking his Toyota Avanza taxi illegally.

Witnesses said Macia had been trying to get his driver's licence back from the police when an altercation occurred. But witnesses denied police suggestions the victim had tried to disarm one of the officers.

''He was just pushing them, not trying to take the gun,'' said George Nxumalo, a 57-year-old Daveyton resident.

The Mozambique government said it was ''outraged by what happened''.

''It is very sad that a life was lost so stupidly,'' the Mozambique Foreign Minister, Oldemiro Baloi, said.

''We come across a lot of cases of police brutality,'' said Moses Dlamini of South Africa's Independent Investigative Directorate, which investigates police crimes. ''The police don't even care that people are watching.''

''If this was apartheid police we'd riot,'' Zackie Achmat, a prominent social activist, wrote on Twitter.

After 1994, when apartheid ended and the African National Congress was voted into power in the country's first fully democratic elections, reforming the police force was a top priority. Its emphasis was supposed to shift from controlling black South Africans to serving them.

But a fierce crime wave washed over South Africa in the years after apartheid. Violent crime increased by 22 per cent. Murder, carjackings and armed robberies were endemic. South Africa's international reputation suffered.

In the case of Mr Macia, few of the bystanders appeared to support the police. Protesters gathered at the Daveyton Police Station on Thursday, demanding that the officers be prosecuted.

''They killed one of our brothers like he was a dog,'' said one woman, speaking to a reporter of ENCA, a local news channel.